Our runners re-group Levi dispenses some much needed, first-aid; and the team descends into Yuchitol’s cave. The walls of the cave are decorated lavishly with paintings and the floor is littered with tokens of gold, silver, beads, food, and pottery. At the end of the cave it becomes clear to the runners that they may not fully complete their mission.

There, in the cool darkness of the cave lie the remains of Yuchitol. A wooden serpent’s skeleton capped, by a huge three foot skull adorned with gleaming quartz horns. Clint levitates the skull out of the cave, where the team is met by Ahayuta, he gathers that Yuchitol must have abandoned this physical body years ago; where the Frog Sorcerer found it a fed off its essence to gain his power.

Most importantly, the Frog Sorcerer was using his power and the Cloud Swallowers to create the Alchera; and it could only be assumed that he intended to travel to our world, and rule it as his own realm. Ahayuta thanks us for bringing peace to the Pueblo, and began to chant.

In the blink of an eye, all was dark and the floor fell out beneath our runners.

As the group opened their eyes they found themselves in a board room full of several very confused, and quickly angering suits. The group quickly left the room with the huge skull following close behind. Levi and Clint make Wheeler and Marius invisible and the group pulls a cloak over the skull as they assure the confused individuals that everything is fine. All the while Marius non-stop taps on the nearby elevator ‘down’ button.

Finally the elevator arrives and begins to take the group down the 50 floors. Upon reaching the lobby, our group finds it swarming with High-Threat Response guards. It becomes quickly evident that this won’t end well. Cho throws a flash grenade and hand-in-hand the team sprints toward the door.

Unfortunately the heavily prepared response team has flash protection and opens fire on our group. As the lobby is riddled with bullets, both invisible members get hit pretty badly but keep running. Once out of the door I put up a physical barrier, but not before Cho gets hit. Turns out we were teleported into the AVO building, part of the EVO Corp. The good news out of all this is that we’re only a block away from the Tower of Babel.

Our heroes make their way carefully back up the tower, which again has power. They exit the elevator to the sounds of Dean playing music off his comm and Aaron setting up a ritual site out of various bar supplies; straws, glasses, plastic swords, etc.

The group relays their adventure on the other side of the Alchera, Aaron is excited, however disappointed that Yuchitol no longer physically existed in the Pueblo Plane. He explains that the dragon Ghostwalker was his employer.

Aaron asks Clint for the skull, and transfers payment. He then sets the skull within the ritual site. After about an hour of work, Aaron began to chant. The different components of the rituals site begin to melt and twist into various shapes and designs, the crystal horns began to glow bright filling the room with blinding magical energy. Then, nothing. Yuchitol’s skull gone, Aaron says he’s going to report back to Ghostwalker, thanks the team again, and bids them good night.

Days later Clint, still tired from the repeating nightmares, which have become even more vivid since his venture through the Alchera; he receives a call from Dean. He says that Aaron wants to meet us at the Tower of Babel again.

Aaron informs the group that Ghostwalker greatly appreciates our attempt to bring Yuchitol back to this plane. He then presents the group with small tokens, which appear to be miniatures of Yuchitol’s skull.

He then offers us an old Pueblo artifact: The Conch of Fates. He continues to explain that this curious artifact has an answer to all questions. However, it can only answer one question per day and will either tell a truth that will get the inquirer into trouble, or a lie that will then be to the inquirer’s benefit.

Clint takes the artifact with open arms, seeing this as a vessel of hope.

The Conch of Fates was not originally a part of the mission write up. I added this item as an additional quest reward that I hoped would prove interesting. The artifact was explained as a curious, morbid prank-like creation by some ancient tribal mage.

One question could be asked per day (I later extended this to a week, effectively limiting its use to once per run or between runs). The conch could either guide the user towards their answer with true or lead them astray with lies, which it would use would be selected at random. If it did tell the truth, however, the end result was usually bad for the player. In the case of a lie, it was to the players benefit in some fashion.

Aaron bows and lets us know that he is off on another quest for Ghostwalker, and hopes to see us next time his travels bring him to Denver.

Denver saw its first ray of sunshine that day, Clint finally feels warm, as he refuses a ride from Wheeler. As Clint walks the long walk back home he ponders his question very thoroughly. He tries hard to salvage anything from his racked memory…nothing. By the time Clint arrived back home he was so focused he felt more like he was floating than walking. He went straight to his lodge as the sun shone through his roof and brought soothing warmth rather the bitter cold.

After a long meditation, Clint knew what question he was going to ask, the answer he desired. He raised the Conch and asked simply and directly. “Who did this to me?” After a long pause the Conch remained silent, too tired and relaxed to stay up and get wasted, Clint laid into his cot staring at the shell…

The moment he slipped back to the realm of tireless, confusing nightmares the Conch began to whisper its answer… “Alan Palmer”…